Page 75 of Vengeance of the Gods

The cell around them shifted, bringing Marlena back to a time she’d long since burned from herself. Marlena stood in the bedroom of a home she’d let crumble to ashes.

Her fingertips burned with her green flames, the taste of anger rising up her throat. “How?” she asked after turning in a circle, taking in the room she could almost believe was real if it weren’t for the dragon swinging its head into the cell after her.

Arlet held up a single hand, and the mirage fell away. The angry deep brown dragon with golden eyes and a spiny tail hissed, pausing at Arlet’s command. “How, what? How can I do these things?” Arlet asked, letting a fake stream of fire swirl through the air towards Marlena.

Marlena didn’t move, letting the forged flame break in two against her face and disappear around her.

“Or how did I get my powers back?” Arlet’s dragon’s head swayed back and forth on its front legs, hunching to fit its head inside the cell with Arlet and Marlena. It still towered over them both.

It had been years since Marlena was stunned in the way she was now. Speechless and unable to wrap her head around exactly what was going on. She’d seen Arlet in action during the Saturnalia battle, but she hadn’t been aware of the power she possessed, the secret she’d been keeping from their realm. Now, she was seeing it in action for the first time with the knowledge of just how fucking powerful Arlet had become.

“Vega set us free from the shackles your curse put on our bond.” The dragon dipped its head down, and Arlet’s tiny hand almost got lost in the size of its massive scales as she petted the beast.

Every morsel of shock must have been pictured on Marlena’s face because Arlet started laughing. The laugh was a few short chuckles at first before turning into an all-out belly laugh that rivaled even the most maniacal villains.

Marlena felt the only emotion she had left.

Fury.

Her flames shot up her arms, spreading across the already charred floor, reaching for Arlet, who was climbing up the leg of her dragon like she’d been doing this for years—had she?

Over the bellow of the dragon, Arlet called down, “If I were you, I’d run.”

Marlena didn’t wait around to get stuck in the rubble of Atrox’s collapsing east wing. She stepped through the pages of their realm and landed where the portal was—where it should have been.

It was gone.

The portal’s gone.

The trees’ overlapping branches were just that—branches. No debris scattered the ground. It was as if this portal had imploded on itself too, leaving behind only its memory.

Vates was no longer home to the portal. It no longer sat at the end of a cobblestone road overlooking what remained of Arlet’s childhood home.

Instead of the portal, Marlena was met with Vega straddling Bridger’s lap, wrapped in a tight hug on top of the ivy-covered forest floor.

From her hiding spot in the trees, blending in with the shadows, Marlena watched the relief wash over both their faces. They were covered in blood, and their clothes were dirty and tattered.

They had fought for their lives.

Marlena knew what that looked like.

“You’re okay?” Vega asked, her eyes inspecting Bridger like she’d expected him to be dead.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. You fucking did it.” He laughed, his hands cupping Vega’s face. He ran a gentle thumb over her blood-splattered cheek.

Marlena had seen this before. She’d lived this life.

“You broke the fucking curse.” Bridger laughed again, a happy sound. Marlena hadn’t heard that in a long time though—the lightness of Bridger’s joy. “Do you feel that?”

“Power. Raw. Untouched. We—” Vega started but was cut off by Bridger’s lips meeting hers. She was rigid at first, like she wanted to fight him off, but quickly she sank into their kiss.

And that was more than she needed to see.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Marlena strutted into view, the sun overhead burning off the shadows as she stepped into the clearing.

Vega jumped off Bridger, her lightning sputtering to life.

The smile lighting Vega’s face was from that first zap of unbound power. The power Marlena possessed since her summoning—the power Vega would have felt earlier if Marlena hadn’t cursed her.